Torso found in Lake Ontario belongs to single mom

A badly decomposed torso found in a suitcase in Lake Ontario this week belongs to a single mother whose other body parts were found scattered around Toronto last month, police said Thursday.

Police Const. Tony Vella said autopsy results showed the torso is from Liu Guanghua, a Canadian citizen of Chinese descent.

Her head, foot and hands were discovered in a river west of Toronto last month. A few days later, her two calves, a thigh and an arm were found in a creek in eastern Toronto. Her estranged boyfriend was charged with murder last month.

Her torso was found Wednesday after two boaters spotted the suitcase.

Liu, a mother of three, was reported missing on Aug. 11, a day after her friends dropped her off in front of a now-defunct spa she owned in east Toronto.

Last week, a woman's torso was found at the base of Niagara Falls. Police have ruled out any connection to Liu's case.

Niagara Police suspended their search Thursday around the Niagara River in an area where the torso was found after no other evidence was discovered.

That torso has not been identified but a post-mortem determined it belonged to a Caucasian woman between 31 and 55 years old. It's believed to have been in the water for four to 10 days before it was spotted by a tourist. Police are appealing to the public for help in identifying the woman, who had a pierced navel and two caesarean section scars.

The two cases have received extra attention since porn actor Luka Magnotta was accused of dismembering a Chinese student in Montreal and mailing his body parts to political parties and a school earlier this year.

Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto police detective, said dismembering a body as a way to dispose of it is not new and said three cases does not make a trend.